Naruko
by TheRaptureDream
Summary: To better protect her identity, the Third Hokage made Naruko pose as a boy until she was old enough to protect herself. The time has come to reveal the truth and begin her adventure. Will mostly follow the manga, with some original content as well.
1. Chapter 1: The Truth

"Iruka Sensei, thanks for the extra help." Naruto was exhausted after a few hours of practicing the Clone Jutsu, a few decent ones came out but far from perfect.

"Any time Naruto, you're improving - if slowly, but I can see your determination. Hey, are you okay?" Naruto was having trouble standing and almost fell over but was caught by Iruka.

The following day, Naruto showed up late to class. He seemed out of it, still exhausted. Perhaps he was sick? He didn't even bother fighting back when the students teased him or when Iruka reprimanded him. The teacher called out: "Because Naruto came late to the first part of the lesson, we are going to practice the Clone Jutsu."

After the students finished their complaining, they walked down to the front of the classroom to form a line. Naruto had a blank look on his face and would be last. When it came time for him to perform, he just stood there as if he didn't hear the instructions. After snapping out of it, he walked up to Iruka and made the required handsigns. Nothing happened, not even a dead looking clone – there was no reaction. With that, Naruto swayed side to side and eventually collapsed to the floor.

Later that day, Iruka was in the waiting room at the hospital. For reasons unknown, the Third Hokage himself oversaw Naruto's visit and would let nobody else in – not even the doctors. The Third came out after what seemed like an eternity, he quickly closed the door behind him and gave out a sigh of relief.

Iruka approached the room. "Hokage Sama, will Naruto be alright? I should not have trained him so hard."

"Naruto will be just fine, it was just Chakra exhaustion. You're training wasn't the sole cause of this so don't worry." The old man pulled his pipe out blowing a ring of smoke.

"Then what else caused this? Surely it wasn't…. you know." Iruka visioned the frightening power of the fox in his head and gulped.

"No, that's not it either. Since the child was born, I have taken measures to keep the identity as safe as possible." He made a long drawn out sigh. "Some might call my measures extreme, but I believe it to be better this way. The day has come to begin dropping some safeguards around Naruto. You may go in now, alone. But be warned, you may not like what you find."

Iruka could not begin to imagine what this warning meant, all he could do was speculate as he entered the room. Closing the door behind him, he called out: "Naruto?"

On a lone bed was a figure completely covered by a sheet. As Iruka called out, the figure turned itself away and scrunched into a ball underneath the cloth. Whatever was going on, Naruto did not want to be seen.

"Naruto, it's me Iruka. Nobody else is here; you don't need to hide from me." The figure turned over to face him. As he walked over, a hand came from the side and pulled the sheet away. There, in the bed was a girl! Only her face was visible, she had chin length blue hair and amber colored eyes. Her facial structure was completely different.

"_Is that Naruto_?" He thought to himself. "_She is beautiful_."

"Iruka Sensei." She called out. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for? Everything will be okay." He said as he tried to comfort the sad look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry for hiding it from you, from everyone." Her eyes swelled up and she covered her face again.

"Really, it's okay. I'm just not entirely sure why…" He took a seat on a nearby chair.

"The old man said it was to protect me, but why I don't know. He said that as I got older the jutsu would no longer have any effect. I guess it was that time…." The voice was muffled under the cloth.

"Tell you what Naruto, when you get out of here the first thing we will do is get Ramen! My treat." As he finished what he was saying the sheet was instantly thrown off, underneath was a smile.

"Iruka Sensei, don't call me that anymore. My real name is Naruko." The two stared at one another, as if they had had just met.

"Alright Naruko, that will be an easy thing to adjust to. Sorting out the Academy will be a bit trickier. I'll discuss it with the Hokage." With that he went to leave the room. "I'll see you soon, Naruko."

**Note: If you want a better idea of what Naruko looks like, look up the character Konan. I modelled Naruko after her younger self. I did not want to be like everyone else and just use the sexy jutsu version. If we ever get to a point where Konan is shown, I will alter her appearance. And as for the blue hair, I will explain that in time.**


	2. Chapter 2: Descent

In the interest of not adding to the already growing rumors and suspicions, Naruko was released the following day. Iruka had come and offered to take her home. She had her normal orange outfit on and received numerous glares from the villagers as they walked down the road. On the way they stopped at Ichiraku Ramen as he had previously promised her.

They both took a seat at the stools and waited for the old man to come out and address them. He eyed Naruko suspiciously, "New student, Iruka?"

"Something like that, it's a long story really." He looked to Naruko as if asking her to fill in the details.

"Where has Naruto been anyway? I haven't seen him around lately." The man asked before Naruko could even reply.

"He has been around; you just haven't looked hard enough. Hey old man, can I order now?" The girl was smiling and rubbing the back of her head. "Oh right, I'm Naruko."

Teuchi didn't want to make a scene for Naruko's sake, so he simply nodded in acknowledgment as he took her order. Six bowls later, it was time to head home.

Outside her apartment, the two planned how they would handle the Academy situation. "Alright Naruko, I think I know the best way to deal with this. For starters, I don't want you to come in tomorrow – get more rest. Come the following day at normal time, I will purposely come in late."

"What a bunch of crap! You're making me do everything; you're not going to help me at all." She was fuming and yelling quite loudly but then spoke softly. "But I guess this is something I have to do myself. Thanks Iruka Sensei." She walked in and closed the door behind her with him walking away slowly. She went into her wardrobe to notice every single article of clothing was orange. She ran her fingers through her hair and thought to herself: "_This isn't going to work_…"

* * *

As planned, two days later Naruko headed towards the Academy. At this point nobody could figure out what was going on, for all intents and purposes Naruto had vanished. She stopped outside the classroom, consumed by fear. She put her back to the wall and slid down to a sitting position. She closed her eyes and just wished it would all go away. A familiar figure approached her.

"Are you new here?" She asked.

"Uhh, yes." Naruko replied, not sure how to answer.

"Well if this is your class, you had better head inside. You're late." Sakura extended her hand outward. Naruko accepted it and pulled herself off the floor. She was wearing a simple black shirt with a white skirt that hung just above her knees. "Don't worry, Iruka Sensei is a great teacher!"

"_He is not the one I am worried about_," Naruko thought to herself. "Thank you, Sakura."

"Oh you're welcome, wait how do you know my...?" The pink haired girl stood confused.

"_Crap think of something quick_." On the fly Naruko said, "Oh that's you're hair color, is that an okay nickname?"

"I guess, but that's my real name so it doesn't matter. We should go inside..." Sakura opened the door pulling Naruko in with her.

Naruko sat in her normal seat by Sasuke, she was getting odd looks from everyone. She was becoming more and more uncomfortable as she sunk into her seat. Sasuke wasn't paying her any attention. "_Does he know_?" Even worse was that the other boys were whistling and Kiba was right behind her sniffing the air. "Do you mind?" She asked the overly intrusive boy.

"Did you know you smell just like our classmate Naruto?" Naruko turned around punched him in the mouth. "What the hell was that for?"

"For smelling me." She turned around and twiddled her thumbs nervously.

Kiba immediately got up and starting yelling. "I'm only stating the truth you know, must be one of Naruto's stupid sexy jutsu's." He then threw a punch hoping to make her revert back to *him*.

Just in time, Sasuke was on the desk and caught the punch. "Why don't you sit back down before you hurt yourself." As this was unfolding, the student in front of Naruko turned around knocked Sasuke right into her face. After locking lips for a brief instant, the two quickly seperated and proceeded to cough and gag. Sakura and Ino were making fists, prepared to pounce on Naruko. Just in time, Iruka walked in.

"Alright class, settle down." He looked at the crowd around the desk. "It seems you met Naruko. Why don't you all take your seats."

Shikamaru was the first one to blurt out, "Naruko? As in Naruto! No way!" Laughter erupted out as she banged her head on the desk repeatedly.


	3. Chapter 3: Watch that first step

Later that evening, Naruko was sitting alone at the end of a dock. The sun was just starting to go down as an orange glow illuminated the sky. She was looking down at her reflection in the water, the image of Naruto appeared and stared back at her. "_Goodbye Naruto_," she said to herself as he faded away. After her real self came back into view, she smiled and stood up. She ascended the nearby staircase to get back up to the street. A man ran past her, but it was too dark to make out who it was. A trail of blood followed him as he barreled down the street. Instinctively, she went after him to see if he was okay.

She found herself outside the gates, the now pitch black forest was in front of her as she jumped through the trees looking for any signs of life. After a while she saw a light in the darkness, there was a fire set up and a man was sitting on a log tending to wounds. She stopped on a branch and watched him carefully.

"Mizuki Sensei, what are you doing here? Are you okay?" She asked with concern.

"What, whose out there? Show yourself!" He demanded.

"It's me, Naruko. Uhh, Naruto." She called out. "What happened to you?"

"_What's that all about? No matter, the demon fox tracked me. I have to silence it now_." He tossed a number of shuriken up at the branch and one embedded itself in her leg as she fell out of the tree and into a pile of leaves. As he went over to investigate, he saw a pale clone dispel in a puff of smoke. "_The kid is smarter than I gave "her" credit for_." He ran back to his makeshift camp and seemed to be looking for something. "_She took my scroll!"_

* * *

Naruko found a safe place to hide before investigating the scroll and its contents. "_There are Jutsu instructions written on this, I bet I could really impress Iruka Sensei if I learned one of them."_

Eventually Mizuki caught up and confronted her. "Stupid demon, die already!"

She stood there nervous as an oversized shuriken was thrown right at her. Upon taking the hit, her Shadow Clone dispelled and two jumped down at him from the trees.

"_Damn, she read the scroll_." He dodged the two of them and was easily able to defeat them with simple punches to the face.

"Show yourself, Nine Tailed Fox!" he yelled out.

"_Fox_?" she thought to herself. "_What does he mean by that_?"

He found her hiding spot on a nearby tree branch and started running toward her. Just then, he lifted up off the ground and hovered. "What did you do to me? I can't move!"

"I didn't do anything!" she cried out.

"Liar!" he shouted as he was thrown at a tree and effectively knocked out.

She jumped down to the ground as a figure shrouded in darkness approached.

"That's far enough," She declared holding one of Mizuki's kunai in hand. "Who are you?"

A monotone voice whispered in the dark, "A simple observer."

"Observing what exactly?" she asked.

"Observing how the host performs. I'm disappointed".

"I don't know what you're talking about," she yelled back at him.

"You are the precious host of the Nine Tailed Fox, the demon that attacked your village. You're weaker than I expected." The figure remained where it was for a moment and then vanished.

Naruko was shocked. Suddenly she was hit with waves of emotions. "It all makes sense now. That's why everyone acts the way they do, that's why I had to hide my identity. What am I?" She was staring down at her left hand, it was trembling for some reason. It transformed with claws as it came up to grab her neck. She used her other hand to hold it down as it merely faded away. "Some kind of illusion, I must be going crazy."

* * *

Naruko held the scroll in her right arm and had Mizuki tied up, he was being carried by a few clones. "When I get my hands on you-" he was interrupted by a blow to the head.

"Sorry Sensei, I must have slipped." She snickered sarcastically and resumed walking.

As she neared the gates, a number of ANBU surrounded her. She held the scroll close, defending it. "Naruko Uzumaki, hand that over," one called out.

"No way, finders keepers! This is my reward for beating up Mizuki Sensei." Iruka walked over and took it from her. "Hey, that's mine!"

Her teacher shook his head. "Actually it belongs to the village." He looked at her perfect solid clones. "Naruko, did you do all of this yourself?"

"I sure did!" she declared excitedly, not making any mention of the strange man she met in the forest. "You're looking at the next Hokage!"

All he could do was smile. "Maybe some day Naruko, but you haven't even taken the Genin exam yet. If it was up to me, you would have passed on account of what happened tonight. I can't believe you mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu in a single night!"

The two walked back to the village as the ANBU apprehended the criminal, Mizuki.

**Note:** **So, the overall story is the same but the way things happen is completely changed around. Was it too different or just right? I don't want to make a carbon copy of the original story and just replace "Naruko" with "Naruto." And who was that guy in the dark anyway?**


	4. Chapter 4: The Light of Dawn

Naruko was sleeping soundly the night before the exam. This would be short lived however, as she woke up to the sound of glass breaking. Quickly, she turned on a lamp and surveyed the room itself. There wasn't anything of interest going on, whatever it was came from another room. She quickly pulled open a drawer on her nightstand and grabbed a kunai. Climbing slowly out of bed, she held the blade close to her chest as she moved to her door. She put her ear against it to listen for any signs of a break in. The pitter patter of footsteps could be heard on the wooden floor as she opened the door. The short hallway that led to the kitchen was pitch black and there were no signs of life. The noises had died the second she entered the hall.

Upon inspecting the kitchen area, a glass bowl had been shattered across the floor. She checked the door to see if it was still locked, to her relief it was. "_Must have just fallen out of the cabinet. It's a little windy out too, I was just hearing things"_ After sweeping the floor up and disposing of the shards, she wiped the sweat off her forehead and gave everything one final glance over. As she made her way back to her bedroom, the door slammed in front of her. Her unease had immediately returned, her heart was racing as she tried to open it. It was locked from the inside. At this point she was overwhelmed and instinctively went into the bathroom locking the door behind her. For the rest of the night she was huddled in the corner of the room, the sound of running around was echoing through the entire apartment. At an unknown time she fell to sleep.

* * *

A few hours later she awoke to sunlight coming through the small window above her head. For a moment she almost forget the events of the previous night. Cautiously, she unlocked the door and immediately checked the corners in the hall. There was nothing there, but the bedroom door was wide open. There was nobody inside, and nothing seemed disturbed or missing. The same applied to the kitchen, and the only door to the apartment was still locked. "_I never believed in ghosts until now. Mental note, ask the old man how to make it go away." _After the morning sun vanquished the darkness, she hopped in the shower and changed. She was running late, but she hoped her excuse was good enough: "_A ghost broke into my apartment last night."_

She hustled to the academy and saw a number of her classmates outside sporting brand new forehead protectors. Despite the way they constantly berate her; with the exception of Hinata, she was glad to see that nobody failed. "_The test must be easy this year, I can do this._" Going towards her classroom, Sasuke walked up to her._ "_Hey Sasuke, you passed too_?" _she asked sarcastically.

_"_Of course I did, I'm not you. You better get in there, I was meant to be the last. Not that someone like you has any chance of passing_." _He walked away triumphantly.

She burst through the door yelling. "I'm here!"

Iruka was seated at his desk, joining him was the Third Hokage. "Ahh Naruko, you made it just in time. Why are you so late? I expected you to be the first one here" the teacher scolded her.

She thought to herself for a moment. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you."

"Fair enough then. Like the two previous years Naruko, you will have to perform the Clone Jutsu. Begin when you are ready." As Iruka spoke, a number of students gathered outside to observe her impending doom.

Naruko took a stance before the two and made the appropriate handsigns. An aura of blue chakra surrounded her followed by a cloud of smoke. Three separate clones formed, an impressive feat for a mere academy student. The only problem however, was that they were a mess. One was of Naruto, who appeared to be dead on the floor. The other two were of her, but were bugging out twitching. The third Hokage tipped his hat downwards as Iruka yelled out: "YOU FAILED." In defeat, she lowered her head down and walked out without a word as the two watched her closely. Laughter erupted all around her, but she didn't care. She completely ignored them, which took them by surprise.

* * *

Later on, the Hokage was seated in his office with Iruka standing before him. A familiar voice rang out, "Yo!"

Iruka nodded to the newcomer standing in the window, "Kakashi."

The Third turned around and gestured for Kakashi to come in. "What is your assessment?"

Kakashi stood next to Iruka and revealed the Sharingan under his forehead protector. "Worse than you predicted."

The old man sighed. "Explain."

"During her exam, she did everything right and there is no reason her jutsu should have failed. I took a closer look and saw that the Fox's chakra is completely attacking her own. Perhaps the seal is weakening." He then became more serious. "There is more. She had undergone trauma before she arrived. Her body was covered in scrapes and bruises."

Iruka was clearly concerned and spoke out. "Do you suspect that somebody hurt her?"

While this was going on, the Third remembered her words earlier: "I don't think you would believe me if I told you."

Kakashi looked to address Iruka directly. "I suspect that the Fox itself is the culprit, why it would choose to lash out like this now of all times I do not know."

The Hokage spoke out once more. "Kakashi, everything will go as we planned. You will have a team to deal with in a few days, so rest yourself until then. Don't worry about Naruko." With that, Kakashi departed through the window.

Iruka was then standing there dumbfounded. "As planned?"

The Hokage grinned. "I will explain everything to you later. But for now, please retrieve Naruko and bring her here."

**Note**: **One thing that I was never pleased with was how little the fox actually interacted with Naruto. For my own version of the story, I intend to have the fox become much more violent; especially to Naruko. Did anyone catch the Castlevania 2 reference?**


End file.
